Housing Expo now set for October

The Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) housing exhibition for developers to showcase full scale models of housing solutions for low and middle-income earners is now set for October.

The event was initially set to take place in May but, was been postponed to the later date to enable the several activities planned in celebration of the country’s 50th Independence Anniversary, Minister within the Ministry of Communities, with responsibility for Housing, Valerie Sharpe-Patterson told the Government Information Agency (GINA).

The weekend exhibition will be held under the theme, “Housing Solutions-2016 and beyond” It will be at Perseverance, East Bank Demerara, the Minister said, adding that, the public would have the opportunity to pronounce on the housing solutions presented.

“At that Expo we will have home developers doing two samples for us, a low cost house and a moderate income house. Persons would have an opportunity to look at the models, and if they have their house lots and they want a developer to build for them, they can now have an opportunity to make direct contact,” she explained.

The public will also have the opportunity to purchase the housing solutions that would be displayed at the site. “At the end of it, persons can buy those homes. They can buy it and get ownership to it and so it will remain permanent on that site,” she explained.

The housing expo also offers benefits to the Ministry in terms of ensuring public consultation on the range of housing options that the Ministry makes available to public. The Expo will provide for the public to have the say in what the Ministry constructs instead of the Ministry presenting home owners its ideas of housing solutions.

“Persons would be asked to assess the housing solutions presented and based on their assessment, we know what is the best choice and that will help us now, not to give persons what we want but to give the people what they want,” Minister Sharpe-Patterson explained.

She noted that the older solutions offered by the Core and Turn Key Houses have not in every instance, been to the liking of the public. In many instances, these solutions have proven to be inadequate to the category of the public they are being provided for.

According to the Minister, a number of persons have indicated their interest in the Expo. “We have 14 applications from developers and more persons are coming even now,” she said.

In March, the CH&PA had closed application for participation in the Expo to facilitate the initial Expo date of May. Now that the activity has been pushed to October more persons are coming on board.

Sharpe-Patterson said that the CH&PA will continue to collect applications for the event up until the middle of June. “We have the space at Perseverance and the wider the choices (of housing solutions) the better for the public, the better for us,” she said.

In terms of what the developers will be presenting to the public and the Ministry, Minister Sharpe-Patterson explained that the CH&PA has given the developers a guide in terms of dimensions and price.

“…currently our turn-key houses are two bedrooms and they sell $4.9M (house and land) so we give them that guide,” she said. “What we recognised also, is that even though our turn key houses are two bedrooms, most families require three bedrooms so we asked them to do three bedroom samples as well,” she added.

In addition to the home developers, several furnishing companies will have their products on display the minister added.

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